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Scientist Sees Space Elevator in 15 Years
Science - AP ^ | 2004-06-25 | CARL HARTMAN

Posted on 06/25/2004 2:21:35 PM PDT by Junior

WASHINGTON - President Bush (news - web sites) wants to return to the moon and put a man on Mars. But scientist Bradley C. Edwards has an idea that's really out of this world: an elevator that climbs 62,000 miles into space.

Edwards thinks an initial version could be operating in 15 years, a year earlier than Bush's 2020 timetable for a return to the moon. He pegs the cost at $10 billion, a pittance compared with other space endeavors.

"It's not new physics — nothing new has to be discovered, nothing new has to be invented from scratch," he says. "If there are delays in budget or delays in whatever, it could stretch, but 15 years is a realistic estimate for when we could have one up."

Edwards is not just some guy with an idea. He's head of the space elevator project at the Institute for Scientific Research in Fairmont, W.Va. NASA (news - web sites) already has given it more than $500,000 to study the idea, and Congress has earmarked $2.5 million more.

"A lot of people at NASA are excited about the idea," said Robert Casanova, director of the NASA Institute of Advanced Concepts in Atlanta.

Edwards believes a space elevator offers a cheaper, safer form of space travel that eventually could be used to carry explorers to the planets.

Edwards' elevator would climb on a cable made of nanotubes — tiny bundles of carbon atoms many times stronger than steel. The cable would be about three feet wide and thinner than a piece of paper, but capable of supporting a payload up to 13 tons.

The cable would be attached to a platform on the equator, off the Pacific coast of South America where winds are calm, weather is good and commercial airplane flights are few. The platform would be mobile so the cable could be moved to get out of the path of orbiting satellites.

David Brin, a science-fiction writer who formerly taught physics at San Diego State University, believes the concept is solid but doubts such an elevator could be operating by 2019.

"I have no doubt that our great-grandchildren will routinely use space elevators," he said. "But it will take another generation to gather the technologies needed."

Edwards' institute is holding a third annual conference on space elevators in Washington starting Monday. A keynote speaker at the three-day meeting will be John Mankins, NASA's manager of human and robotics technology. Organizers say it will discuss technical challenges and solutions and the economic feasibility of the elevator proposal.

The space elevator is not a new idea. A Russian scientist, Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, envisioned it a century ago. And Arthur C. Clarke's novel "The Foundations of Paradise," published in 1979, talks of a space elevator 24,000 miles high, and permanent colonies on the moon, Mercury and Mars.

The difference now, Edwards said, is "we have a material that we can use to actually build it."

He envisions launching sections of cable into space on rockets. A "climber" — his version of an elevator car — would then be attached to the cable and used to add more lengths of cable until eventually it stretches down to the Earth. A counterweight would be attached to the end in space.

Edwards likens the design to "spinning a ball on a string around your head." The string is the cable and the ball on the end is a counterweight. The Earth's rotation would keep the cable taut.

The elevator would be powered by photo cells that convert light into electricity. A laser attached to the platform could be aimed at the elevator to deliver the light, Edwards said.

Edwards said he probably needs about two more years of development on the carbon nanotubes to obtain the strength needed. After that, he believes work on the project can begin.

"The major obstacle is probably just politics or funding and those two are the same thing," he said. "The technical, I don't think that's really an issue anymore."

 


TOPICS: Miscellaneous
KEYWORDS: bradleyedwards; carbondesigns; crevolist; hinduropetrick; indianropetrick; magicropetrick; space; spaceelevator; spaceexploration
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To: Don Joe
They can't build a space elevator, because it will be ripped apart by the torsional stress from the tidal forces.

What if (i.e. not well thought out) you counter ballance weights by moving equal amount up at the same time as down. Perhaps by mining from the moon or astoriods? Send ore down and machines up?

41 posted on 06/25/2004 2:42:24 PM PDT by thackney (life is fragile, handle with prayer)
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To: Junior
The science is sound and has been talked about by engineers and technologists for the last couple of decades. Unfortunately, I don't see anything coming from this because of politics (it can't be built in anyone's district).

It would be a terrorist magnet.

Kinda a huge No-Pest Strip.

42 posted on 06/25/2004 2:42:41 PM PDT by Lazamataz ("Stay well - Stay safe - Stay armed - Yorktown" -- harpseal)
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To: Junior
The cable would be about three feet wide and thinner than a piece of paper, but capable of supporting a payload up to 13 tons.

What a kite string does, this will do in spades.

43 posted on 06/25/2004 2:43:49 PM PDT by drlevy88
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To: theDentist
Moving supplies and materials more efficiently than cargo shuttle missions. Building and resupplying spacecraft too large to launch from earth.
44 posted on 06/25/2004 2:44:17 PM PDT by CyberCowboy777 (Veritas vos liberabit)
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To: Dead Corpse

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1612826,00.asp


45 posted on 06/25/2004 2:44:43 PM PDT by Strategerist
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To: Dead Corpse

Ain't seen a darn thing made out of carbon nanotubes yet.

Buy some sunscreen, though you won't be able to se the nanotubes unless you have a STM. Buy a bullet proof vest or one of the new military grade Humves with the special ballistic coating.

46 posted on 06/25/2004 2:45:00 PM PDT by Zon
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To: Don Joe

I am having trouble visualizing this.
The lateral velocity of the cab is zero relative to the surface of the Earth, and remains so as it ascends or descends. There is no spinning.
I could see the beanstalk requiring counterweights, but I don't see what your skater has to do with anything.


47 posted on 06/25/2004 2:45:08 PM PDT by Little Ray (John Ffing sKerry: Just a gigolo!)
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To: O.C. - Old Cracker

A stick of dynamite on a kite?


48 posted on 06/25/2004 2:45:18 PM PDT by drlevy88
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To: CyberCowboy777

Good point. But I still prefer dropping water balloons from 67K miles... "Look Up!"


49 posted on 06/25/2004 2:46:14 PM PDT by theDentist ("John Kerry changes positions more often than a Nevada prostitute.")
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To: Little Ray

This is in FR archives. The cable doesn't even have to be anchored at the equator.


50 posted on 06/25/2004 2:46:15 PM PDT by RightWhale (Destroy the dark; restore the light)
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To: Lazamataz

Well, you've got a single location out in the ocean on the equator off the coast of South America. Pretty easily defensible against terrorists. Can put in a pretty enormous no-sail/no-fly zone that wouldn't negatively impact much of anybody.


51 posted on 06/25/2004 2:46:32 PM PDT by Strategerist
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To: Dead Corpse

Carbon fiber is not carbon nanotube.

So then why do you bring it up? Some car bumpers are being made with nanotubes.

52 posted on 06/25/2004 2:46:44 PM PDT by Zon
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To: Lazamataz
It would be a terrorist magnet.
Kinda a huge No-Pest Strip.

GREAT IDEA!!! Build the most desirable target in the world, AND fully protect it. More like a giant flyswatter in front of the biggest bowl of honey.

53 posted on 06/25/2004 2:46:44 PM PDT by thackney (life is fragile, handle with prayer)
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To: thackney
What if (i.e. not well thought out) you counter ballance weights by moving equal amount up at the same time as down. Perhaps by mining from the moon or astoriods? Send ore down and machines up?

That'll just make it worse. :)

Do some googling on the Roche Limit. The more mass you put at the extremes, the more it'll tear things apart in the middle. It's like being drawn and quartered. You can't compensate for one horse pulling on your leg by adding two horses to your arm. :)

54 posted on 06/25/2004 2:47:48 PM PDT by Don Joe (We've traded the Rule of Law for the Law of Rule.)
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To: VadeRetro
It gets worse, I went back in 1984 and in 1985 I bought the Masonic Temple bldg across from the courthouse, I lost all my tenants to either General Hospital or the new office complex that the governor's buddy owned that used to be a clothing store by the bridge over the bowling alley; in the end, I lost the building and $65,000, moved to Martinsburg, worked in the laundry at the V.A. hospital for a year, got stuck with a needle in a laundry bag, quit there while I still had my sanity and moved back to Simi Valley, Ca.

Then came the earthquake in 1994 after I had moved to Canoga Park and my wife's traumatization to any sudden noise or movement and got stuck here in Nashville where time stands so still you jumpstart every day with yesterday's beer.

I got a great sense of direction.

55 posted on 06/25/2004 2:48:37 PM PDT by Old Professer (Interests in common are commonly abused.)
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To: Don Joe

And this isn't considering the atmospheric drag on it. Don't we have some pretty brisk winds a few miles up?


56 posted on 06/25/2004 2:50:52 PM PDT by drlevy88
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To: RightWhale

You know, that's a grand idea; first operate the cab with a storage battery, and use a D.C. motor. When the lowered cab comes down the motor becomes a generator replacing .7-.8 of the current used going up.


57 posted on 06/25/2004 2:52:14 PM PDT by Old Professer (Interests in common are commonly abused.)
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To: Junior

Will we be able to see the glow of the elevator from Texas? Sure would make a nice beacon or "South Star" for orientation.


58 posted on 06/25/2004 2:53:16 PM PDT by Deguello
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To: Deguello

Would the static charge be a problem? It would be cutting some major flux lines.


59 posted on 06/25/2004 2:56:52 PM PDT by RightWhale (Destroy the dark; restore the light)
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To: Dead Corpse
it also sounds like something out of an Arthur C. Clarke novel.

It IS something out of an Arthur C. Clarke novel: The Fountains of Paradise.

Arthur C. Clarke also came up with a little notion that was equally ridiculed: geostationary satellites.

60 posted on 06/25/2004 2:56:53 PM PDT by Phsstpok (often wrong, but never in doubt)
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